The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "death certificate" ...
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"Faces of a Health Crisis: L.A. County's Swine Flu Victims"
The Neon Tommy team takes a look at the people directly affected by the H1N1 virus in L.A. County to find out exactly who was dying from the virus and why. In a review of 44 death certificates, the team found that 22 of the deceased had no "preexisting conditions" before contracting the H1N1 virus. They also found that the majority of those who died from H1N1 were women.
Tags: H1N1; Swine Flu; Los Angeles County; Annenberg Digital News; USC; pre-existing conditions
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Culture of Resistance
The Seattle Time analyzed millions of computerized hospital records, death certificate and other documents to track the swath of one of the nation's most widespread, and preventable, epidemics. In its investigation, the Times gained access to state files that revealed 672 previously undisclosed deaths attributable to the infection. The Times also found that in Seattle's largest public hospital, some patients who are infected with contagious MRSA are roomed with non-infected patients because of overcrowding. In at least a dozen cases, the Times proved that death certificates were inaccurate or incomplete when it came to MRSA.
Tags: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA); Washington state; health and safety; infectious diseases; epidemiology; staph infections.
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I Lit the Fire: Jared Petrovich Admits His Role in the Killing of John Chamberlain. But why did he target the gay?
These four articles probed the culture of violence at tTheo Lacy Men's Jail in Orange, CA, beginning with an exclusive interview of Jared Petrovich, the accuse ringleader of the Oct. 5, 2006 murder of John Chamberlain, an inmate suspected of child molestation who was brutally beated inside the jail. That story included combined interviews with Petrovich and other inmates and guards at the facility with transcripts and notes of interviews with inmates and guards that the reporter obtained from lawyers representing inmates, including Petrovich, who were charged in the attack. The article contained allegations that Deputy Kevin Taylor, a prison guard who was never charged in the crime, told Petrovich that Chamberlain was a child molester, and that Taylor routinely use inmates like Petrovich to enforce prison rules and mete out punishment to various inmates. Petrovich provided an example of this behavior that I did not include in my original story, alleging that Taylor had known about--and approved--a previous beating of an inmate in Sept. 2006. He only knew the inmate's first name--Mark--but claimed the inmate had been a guitarist for the rock band Kiss. He claimed another inmate, nicknamed "Sick Dog" had witnessed Taylor being informed of the planned attack and, after it was carried out, rewarding the inmates with sack lunches. Through a California Public Records Act request, the reporter obtained the Sheriff Department's jail file on the beaten inmate, Mark Leslie Norton, aka Mark St. John of the rock band Kiss, and found information which corroborated Petrovich's account of the incident, and obtained his death certificate. St. John died of a brain hemorrhage several months after being released.
Tags: prison beatings; rock band Kiss; California; prisoner brutality; bribe; prison regulation
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Breach of Trust
When writing a will and picking someone to carry out your final wishes, while in Texas, does not ensure that the heirs picked will be properly given the money and property. State laws have made it easy for the executor of the will to take from the estates.
Tags: death certificate; decease; departed; funeral
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The Final Hours of Miguel Contreras
Labor leader and Los Angeles power-broker Miguel Contreras was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Los Angeles, the week before the 2005 mayoral election. No autopsy was performed, and doctors were pressured to sign a death certificate. The article outlines political power bases in Los Angeles, and speculates how various issues would have had different results if Contreras had lived.
Tags: organ harvesting; autopsy; botanica; 911 tape; labor leader; coroner; Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; LAPD; United Farmworkers; UFW; Centinela Freeman Memorial Hospital; Daniel Freeman Hospital
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A Stunning Toll
Fort Worth Weekly partnered with University of North Texas students who made open records requests of all Texas law enforcement agencies to obtain data on deaths and injuries in Texas resulting form law enforcement agency individual's Taser use.
Tags: Distributed Reporting Project; FOI; Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas; University of North Texas; UNT; Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism; Tasers; law enforcement; Texas Public Information Act; police; sheriffs; Taser International; American Civil Liberties Union; Live Music Capitol of the World; Austin; use-of-force policy; bean hole; stun gun; product safety; wrongful death; Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas; Those Disgruntled Motherfuckers That Have Been Tased; TDMTHBT; Light of Day Project; IRE Student Entry
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Death on the Tracks: How Railroads Sidestep Blame
These stories exposed how the railroad industry shirk the responsibility for fatal accidents. It destroys evidence, neglects to report accidents, and finances a public relations campaign that blames drivers for crashes. The investigation also shows how the industry often has a close relationship with its regulators, and how faulty warning signals are more common than previously thought.
Tags: transportation; Federal Railroad Administration; accidents; train wrecks
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A Pattern of Suspicion
This fourteen month investigation into racial profiling began with the 2001 death of Timothy Thomas, an African - American teenager in Cincinnati. Thomas had fourteen police warrants before he was killed, all of which stemmed from unpaid traffic tickets for non-moving violations. These sorts of violations are often used as a pretext for seeing if suspicious motorists have drugs or guns. In nearly every city Dateline looked at, blacks were stopped or ticketed for non-moving violations at least twice as often as whites.
Tags: racism; profiling; traffic tickets; police corruption
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Vaccine Dangers
The news team found risks had been concealed from people asked to take the smallpox vaccines. They also expose the military's refusal to admit its vaccines are harming some soldiers; soldiers who are often dismissed and treated like "malingerers." They focused on the case of Rachael Lacy. The military denied her death was from the vaccines it administered but the news team found her death certificate showed otherwise. They also looked at the case of NBC War Correspondent David Bloom who died after his vaccinations. His case was not reported or investigated as a possible vaccine adverse event. They also looked at a Journal of the American Medical Association claiming there had been "no" deaths after smallpox vaccinations.
Tags: TAPE; military; smallpox; vaccine; medical records; death; death certificate; military casualty record; inoculation; blood clots; Anthrax; pulmonary nodules; Food and Drug Administration; Defense Department; bio-terror attack; Rachael Lacy; David Bloom; immune system
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Dying in darkness, Ugly Results of State Care Revealed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on mental retardation deaths in Georgia. The series documents 163 deaths since late 1997 "when Georgia aggressively transferred people from state institutions to community settings." Many deaths in these privately managed group homes resulted from abuse and neglect. Mentally retarded victims suffocated, choked, drowned in bathtubs, or were dehydrated and malnourished. Deaths were usually reported late, and bodies were rarely autopsied. The stories find that the state has been "ill-equipped to protect the people it moved into these privately-run homes." The findings are based on database analysis of records of people with mental retardation in Georgia, and death certificates.
Tags: Georgia's Open Records Act; FOI requests; wrongful death lawsuits; health care; aspiration pneumonia; mental health